Serapis
Minor Goa'uld who has resided for long periods on the planet Earth, drawing servants for the planet Serapeion. History Born into one queen of the smaller of Ra , he was sent to planet Earth in order to study the evolution of the Tau'ri after the departure of the Goa'uld the planet. Failing in its mandate, he began to deport thousands of people without arousing any attention from the Goa'uld, but being worshiped as a God especially in the area of Egypt. As the God of the dynastic family of the Ptolemies, Serapis had full access to the human resources of the city of Alexandria, performing abductions and continuing to study the religions arising from the original Goa'uld cults. Going back and forth between Earth and Serapeion, Serapis also taken from other areas of the Earth religions populations groups other than the Hellenistic, in order to do an experiment on his own planet. But what he did not know the Goa'uld, and that one day a group of Christians taken from Israel would have caused his death. Abandoned the planet permanently when his worship was banned, Serapis sailed for Serapeion. On his planet soon she ran out of overvalued mineral resources previously. Threatened by the same Ra, Serapis began to look for new mining planets neglecting his own planet. On his return, much of the planet had meanwhile converted to Christianity arriving at isolating small communities still faithful to his worship. Underestimated the enemy, Serapis was captured and publicly executed by generating a civil war. Despite the most technologically advanced, the Serapis followers were rejected and exiled in the oasis city. Mithology Serapis (Σέραπις, Attic/Ionian Greek) or Sarapis (Σάραπις, Doric Greek) is a Graeco-Egyptian god. Cult of Serapis was introduced during the 3rd century BC on the orders of Ptolemy I of Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his realm. The god was depicted as Greek in appearance, but with Egyptian trappings, and combined iconography from a great many cults, signifying both abundance and resurrection. A serapeum (Greek serapeion) was any temple or religious precinct devoted to Serapis. The cultus of Serapis was spread as a matter of deliberate policy by the Ptolemaic kings, who also built an immense Serapeum in Alexandria. However, there is evidence which implies that cult of Serapis existed before the Ptolemies came to power in Alexandria - a temple of Sarapis (or Roman Serapis) in Egypt is mentioned in 323 BCE by both Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 76) and Arrian (Anabasis, VII, 26, 2). The common assertion that Ptolemy "created" the deity is derived from sources which describe him erecting a statue of Sarapis in Alexandria: this statue enriched the texture of the Sarapis conception by portraying him in both Egyptian and Greek style. Though Ptolemy I may have created the cult of Sarapis and endorsed him as a patron of the Ptolemaic dynasty and Alexandria, Sarapis was a syncretistic deity derived from the worship of the Egyptian Osiris and Apis (Osiris + Apis = Oserapis/Sarapis) and also gained attributes from other deities, such as chthonic powers linked to the Greek Hades and Demeter, and benevolence linked toDionysus. Serapis continued to increase in popularity during the Roman period, often replacing Osiris as the consort of Isis in temples outside Egypt. In 389, a Christian mob led by the Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria destroyed the Alexandrian Serapeum, but the cult survived until all forms of pagan religion were suppressed under Theodosius I in 391. "Serapis" is the only form used in Latin, but both Σάραπις, Sárapis and Σέραπις, Sérapis appear in Greek, as well as Σαραπo Sarapo in Bactrian. His most renowned temple was the Serapeum of Alexandria. Under Ptolemy Soter, efforts were made to integrate Egyptian religion with that of their Hellenic rulers. Ptolemy's policy was to find a deity that should win the reverence alike of both groups, despite the curses of the Egyptian priests against the gods of the previous foreign rulers (e.g. Set, who was lauded by the Hyksos). Alexander the Great had attempted to use Amun for this purpose, but he was more prominent in Upper Egypt, and not as popular with those in Lower Egypt, where the Greeks had stronger influence. The Greeks had little respect for animal-headed figures, and so a Greek-style anthropomorphic statue was chosen as the idol, and proclaimed as the equivalent of the highly popular Apis. It was named Aser-hapi (i.e. Osiris-Apis), which became Serapis, and was said to be Osiris in full, rather than just his Ka (life force). Categoria:Goa'uld Categoria:Greek Pantheon Categoria:Goa'uld Deceased